Germany PVC Conduit Aboveground

[lukemccauley92]

I am an electrical engineer who recently traveled to a few US military bases in Germany. We were tasked with looking for any deficiencies that may have occurred since the construction of the military vehicle fueling facility. One reoccurring item I noticed was the aboveground PVC conduit. I have worked mainly in the United States under NFPA 70, where PVC conduit is not allowable aboveground. Is anyone aware of German electrical codes that allow PVC aboveground and in hazardous areas?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Pvc is allowed above ground in the NEC but it is not allowed in hazardous locations- which you already know....lol
Not sure we have any German members here. Do you know what code they use?

(G) Exposed.

PVC conduit shall be permitted for exposed work.

 

[roger]

Also take note that Schedule 80 is permitted in areas where subject to physical damage

 

[ramsy]

am an electrical engineer who recently traveled to a few US military bases in Germany.

When stationed at Bitburg in 1986, everything was repaired by German trades people, and inspected according to their local codes.

We all enjoyed escorting the German contractors around base, especially to the local canteen for lunch, since no soda pop or milk was served. The "unpasteurized" Bitburger Pilsner had live organisms that re-arranged our American intestines, and may have resolved certain mental illnesses, in-spite of our relatively sterile diet from the chow hall.

Using local trades probably simplified converting Biburg Air Base to Flugplatz Bitburg, after the lease expired in 1999.

After Gorbachev took down the wall in 1989, the cold war was over, and the lease for the F15 base, was not renewed.

JP8 jet fuel runoff also got into the water table, and flattened the local beer, Bitburger Pills, by sterilizing the live organisms.

The GI's inability to drive on black ice, and the rate of casualty caused by their over indulgences while driving, may have also overwhelmed the economic benefit of the base hiring local contractors.

 

[garbo]

Years ago I spent a month wiring in a $10 million state of the art machine made in Germany. They had some interesting methods. The power to feed seven DC Power supplies for seven computers that feed six robotic stations were feed from 480 volts three phase to 240 volts three phase to feed the seven 24 volt DC power supplies. They had large filters on the AC power that feed DC power supplies and they examined every DC power supply with an oscilloscope. They had all of the proximity switches feed ultra low current small relay coils that in turn feed larger contactors or solenoids. Told me that having the proximity switches only feeding a very low current they lasted a lot longer and guess they were correct. Some of those proximity switches turned on & off over ten million times a year and seldom had one go bad. The four German mechanics & one German electrician were all extremely knowledgeable. They told me after graduating high school they attended a technical school 40 hours a week for two years. They could not be hired until they passed a five day exam. We had a 65 man fairly talented maintenance shop but these guys but our shop to shame. Germans were set in there way and could not convince them their method of wiring up start stop buttons was dangerous. On all of the German machines we had if you held in the stop button while pushing the start button machines would run. They had the VFD's immersed in oil in an aluminum tank with fins to keep them cool even though our location was air conditioned.